Steve Morison knows what he means

Steve Morison says Jackett changed his career by teaching him that centre-forwards never say sorry

Since then I’ve realised that mentality is a massive thing

Steve Morison

The Norwich star says his former boss at Millwall, Kenny Jackett, changed his career by teaching him that centre-forwards never say sorry.

Morison, who started his career playing non-league football while getting up at 6am to work as a paper shredder, gets ready for another battle today when the Canaries take on Stoke at the Britannia Stadium.

But he owes his promotion to the Premier League and international football with Wales to when Jackett saw him smiling after he’d bumped into a defender.

Morison told the Millwall manager he’d said sorry for the accidental collision.

Jackett’s response was: “Sorry? You should have been saying, ‘You come near me again and I’ll snap you in two’. That’s how it has to be from now on.”

Since then he’s aimed to be as hard on the pitch as he is nice off it – and the result was a move to the Premier League, where he’s scored eight goals to help Paul Lambert’s team into the top half.

The 28-year-old said: “People have read the story in a book published about that Millwall season.

“It turned out to be a defining moment for me and it becomes relevant.

“But that incident got picked up by the manager because we lost that game. He dug me out for it, I managed to respond and in the end we got promoted.

“Since then I’ve realised that mentality is a massive thing. That’s certainly the case in our dressing room.

“We are maybe not as gifted as other teams but what’s noticeable is how far hard work takes you.”

Norwich are eighth, despite last week’s defeat by Manchester United.

Morison said: “You can’t say you didn’t know Scholes was going to arrive in the box late and score, or that Ryan Giggs would arrive late and score too.